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Monday, July 30, 2012

Over the weekend I wore Zoya- Evvie topped off with Stila- City Lights. Zoya Evvie is from this fall's NYFW Designer collection, but it was released earlier this year in the limited edition Peter Som gift box. I do not know if City Lights is from a collection since it is in a mini bottle.

These two shades were a great combination together. Green and gold usually look nice paired.

City Lights was a prismatic gold glitter. I only layered one coat of it over Evvie. In this blurred picture, you can see the different colors the glitter reflects.

I took a couple pictures of Evvie before I layered City Lights over it. This is with the flash. Here it looks almost like a muted greenish gray, but it's much more green.

Without the flash, it is pretty accurate how this color looks in low lighting. The gold glitter brightened it up a lot though so that it didn't look as dark. Evvie is a pretty dark grayed green with some blue hints to it. It is definitely a fall color, but I'll wear those year-round. It also applied flawlessly with two coats.

I got some more epic nail mail for my birthday!!!

I am in a local swap group on facebook and we participated in a secret swap. Sara from Spicey'z Nails was my partner. She sent me some sweet polish plus tons of goodies!! I got Hits-Afterglow, Essie- Mojito Madness, Sally Hansen- Purple Pizzazz, and a mini of Color Club-Wicked Sweet (which I hear smells like blue raspberry)

Saturday, July 28, 2012

I paired two Sally Hansen polishes together. I layered three coats of Glass Slipper, part of the new Diamond Strength shades over Blue-Away. This is a very subtle layering combination. Even with three coats of Glass Slipper, you can barely see the flakies. They are unique flakies in the sense that they don't shift from one color to another. They just have a tiny bit of shimmer.

Here is Blue-Away before I layered Glass Slipper over it. The formula on this was great. I'm actually enjoying the larger brushes that the Insta-Dri bottles have. It was completely opaque in two coats. It is the perfect sky blue creme.

I just had my birthday on Thursday, and some nail mail came. That was appropriate for the occasion.

OPI MAD AS A HATTER IS FINALLY MINE! This has been a lemming for YEARS! Seriously I've wanted this since I first started to get into collecting polish, but I didn't want to pay ridiculous Ebay prices for it. I found this on Copious listed for $40, but I had a $20 credit for starting my account. I got this brand new bottle for $20! It was an awesome deal!

A-England just had a great promotion where the polishes from the Mythicals collection were only 5 pounds. I love A-England, but I usually don't order from them that often just because the shipping and pounds to US dollars conversion rate really adds up. It came to nearly $40 for these 6 polishes. I got Lady of the Lake, Tristam, Avalon, Holy Grail, Perceval, and Elaine.

I did some clothes shopping today and saw a small Kleancolor display with only 4 colors (the other two I had). I picked up Holo Yellow and Pinky Moon

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

This polish is a vintage gem! It is an old school Sally Hansen Nail Prism called Blush Diamond. They released a few batches of Blush Diamond and this is the darker version. I miss when true holos used to be readily available, but judging by the Cosmoprof photos from other bloggers, it looks like they may return! I still have an affinity for collecting the older bottles though.

Blush Diamond is a pretty rose pink. The formula was kind of thin and I am wearing three coats but it built up nicely. These pictures were taken after two days of wear so there's the slightest bit of tipwear.

This picture is a bit blurry, but you can see the prism effect!

I managed to get one sunlight picture, and this one doesn't even show the full holographic effect of this polish. It was pretty intense- almost to the point where it was dangerous to drive without wrecking from looking at my nails!

I have some hauls from the past few days too!

I took advantage of the 99cents Sinful Colors sale at Walgreen's. I want to preface this by saying that I don't agree with what Sinful Colors has done (pretty much stole other bloggers' images for their display, photoshopping out their watermarks without giving credit). I really hope that SC/Revlon owns up to what happened. Not to mention it is bad advertising for them since the stolen photos don't even showcase their products/techniques that they advertise.I saw this as an opportunity to get a lot of polish for an inexpensive price, and I already had a list of SC's that I wanted. Top Row: Bikini, Cinderella, Slate, Unicorn, and Fig. Bottom Row: Neptune, San Francisco, Leap Flog, Mint Apple, and Let Me Go

Monday, July 23, 2012

I have a really quick post for today. I wore three coats of Jesse's Girl- JulieG topped off with one coat of Nicole by OPI- Make U Smile. Sadly, this was the only color-accurate picture that I could get. The vibrance of the color was washed out in all of my other pictures.

JulieG was a pretty thin formula and it needed three coats because it was very brushstrokey. JulieG was named after the YouTube video blogger, but since then Julie G had an entire Jesse's Girl collection released. This is the only Jesse's Girl Polish I own. I'm not really a fan of the brush. It was really tiny- almost like it was made for a child. The color was pretty after it was opaque. It is a true coral creme.

Nicole by OPI- Make U Smile was from the Justin Bieber collection released last year. I'm not really a fan of the shape of the NOPI bottles or the massive brushes. This is a pretty silver glitter topcoat with larger hexes and tiny particles, only I had to fish around for the glitter in order to get some of the big hexes evenly distributed on my nails. The smaller glitter particles were easy to apply evenly on the nail.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Lately, my fiance and I have been obsessed with the show on Animal Planet called The Call of the Wildman. It is a reality show about this backwoods guy called "Turtle Man", who specializes in capturing animals with his bare bands! My fiance chose a combination of turtle-themed colors. I'm referring to it as The TurtleMANicure. This is China Glaze- Mahogany Magic topped off with OPI- Shatter the Scales. This picture was taken without the flash, by a window in rainy weather.

Here's a picture with the flash. I actually really liked this combination together. I wasn't sure if it was going to work at first. The brown looks much lighter with the flash, and the first picture without the flash was actually more accurate as to how this looks in person. The color combination was very subtle. I just love the Shatter the Scales! It's from OPI's Amazing Spiderman collection that was recently released in May. It's a dark green shimmer.

Here's China Glaze- Mahogany Magic before I added the shatter (and before clean-up). This is from China Glaze's spring Hunger Games collection. The formula was nice and it was opaque with two coats. This picture is with the flash. I am really not a fan of this color by itself since it kind of reminds me of poo. This was a lighter brown creme. I like tans because they match my skin tone, and I like deep chocolate browns like OPI- Suzi Loves Cowboys for example, but browns in-between, I'm not really a fan. The compulsion to own the entire Hunger Games collection was the main reason that I purchased this polish.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

A while ago, I purchased China Glaze- It's My Turn. It is from the 2009 Kaleidoscope collection. It is an orange-gold holo. I unfortunately couldn't get any sun pictures because it stormed today, but I still took a few.

The print on the bottle is definitely wearing off! I am wearing three coats here. It built up pretty nicely. I did get a huge chip out of my pinky so the wear wasn't that good. (If you look closely, you can see that I touched it up)

Here's a picture without the flash.

I cannot stress enough how much I love holos! I'm in the process of trying to collect the older China Glaze holos from the Kaleidoscope and OMG collection. I own most of the Tronicas. I just chopped off my nails after these pictures were taken. They were getting too long.

I received some nail mail also! The first one is Twee & Honey- The Nirvana of Inebriation. This is an INTENSE silver linear holo. It's probably a very close dupe to China Glaze- OMG, which I don't own... yet. It came in the mail like 2 days after I ordered it. Great customer service. I want to order more polishes from this company. Especially Magpie and Sonic Rainboom. These can be purchased on the Twee & Honey website. Prices range from $5-$13 depending on the polish. The Nirvana of Inebriation was $13. They also come in Italian glass bottles!

Second, I ordered Nails by Laura- Dani-Mite. This is a very special polish. Danielle, who the polish is named after was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Danielle and Laura teamed up to make this polish. There will only be 100 of these sold and 50% of the cost of the polish will go to the National Brain Tumor Society. I got number 37. I'm sure these won't be available much longer, so get your bottle today! They retail for $10. All of the information can be found on Nails by Laura's Etsy Page.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Over the weekend I wore Color Club- Worth the Risque from the Spring 2009 Femme Fatale collection. It is a silver holo. I have tried out this polish before by dotting with it. You can see that mani here.

Worth the Risque was much more holo than I was expecting it to be, but it isn't exactly a linear holo. I own a few silver holos, and this is one of my favorites. Most holos are hard-to-find or expensive, but this one was pretty accessible. I believe I only paid $4 on it on ebay when I got it about 6 months ago. One of Worth the Risque's silver holo cousins is OPI- DS Coronation. Even though you can see some spectrums of color in Coronation, Worth the Risque is much more prismatic! (Plus it is less expensive and easier to find.)

The formula was good for a holo. I applied three coats to achieve opacity. Holo polishes are usually very thin and have the tendency to chip quickly. This one didn't do that!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

I just loved this mani! I am wearing China Glaze- Atlantis and I layered Rainbow Honey- Koi Pond over my ring finger. Another person in my local swap group on facebook posted a picture of this layering combo and I just HAD to try it because it was gorgeous. I cannot say that this layering idea was mine.

Atlantis was released in the Speciality Color collection in 2009. It is still easily found online such as Trans Design. The formula is amazing. It's pretty thick, but it only needs two coats. It is loaded with prismatic glitter in a teal jelly base. A similar polish is Funky Fingers- Tinsel Town. Tinsel Town is much more green, and the jelly is also sheerer.

I just love how the accent with Koi Pond turned out. It definitely reminds me of koi swimming in a pond, and the black and silver glitters are like rocks. I did not want to remove this mani, but unfortunately it started chipping. That usually happens with thick glitters. Since I only used Koi Pond as an accent, I put it back in my untrieds boxes because it's so gorgeous it needs to be used for a full mani eventually!

My fiance and I spontaneously decided to go to a flea market today. I figured it would be a good opportunity to look for polish. I just love finding older bottles, and I'm still quite nervous to take the leap into dusty-hunting. It was really difficult to find polish. The ones that I found were buried under stuff and we didn't have time to rifle through everything. I'm just glad that I found a couple and didn't leave empty handed.

In a box of Fantasy Makers false eyelashes, these gems were on the bottom. They're makeup sets and they had Glow and Vampish Red. Each one came with rings and black eyeliner. The Glow one came with the a glowing body stick and the Vampish Red one came with a vampy lipstick. I just wanted the polish and they were only $1 each. The seller did offer to sell me the whole box for $8, but it only had eyelashes (like 40 pairs) in it so I wouldn't have much use for them. Since these Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers have the tombstone packaging, they're much newer. They could have been from this year or last year. The Glow one was a little bit separated, but I gave it a good shake and it was as good as new. I'm happy that I found Glow, because that was one that I wasn't lucky enough to find when it was in the stores during Halloween season; plus I got it for less!

I found this one in a box of auto parts. This is Maybelline- Pink Mystique. It still had the original price tag of $3.99 on it, but I got it for a quarter. I wasn't able to find anything out about this polish through googling the name. I don't think that Maybelline makes the Express Finish line anymore but the brushes on these are huge!

Even though I didn't get that much, I still had a great time "treasure-hunting". I only spent $2.25 because I just focused on nail polish. My fiance spent a lot more. He found comic books, Star Wars glasses, a couple vintage political pins, and a Pittsburgh Penguins framed Stanley Cup poster from 1992. I'm curious to try other flea markets. The one that we went to wasn't very organized, but I'm wondering if others would have their nail polish all in one general location? Have any of you tried flea markets? What were your experiences like? Do you have any tips to find polishes at these locations?

Thursday, July 12, 2012

I just wore Zoya- Myrta. It is from this summer's Surf collection. It is a red-orange with silver shimmer- or it could also be considered coral. I have the mini bottle that I got in the Zoya Pinterest trio promotion. The formula is wonderful! It went on smoothly with two coats. It's very shimmery out in the sun also! I wish I would have gotten some sun pictures, but by the time I got home from work today, it was dark outside. This is with the flash in artificial light.

I also got some goodies!

When Pretty & Polished restocked on Etsy, I purchased Boot Camp and Dalmatian Nation. I own nothing like both of these!

I'm in a swap group on facebook and today I did some shopping for the person I'm doing a secret swap with. I ended up getting some stuff for myself too! I got Wet n Wild- Blazed (it was on sale for 60 cents!), Milani- Red Jewel FX, and Maybelline- Twilight Rays- which looks like a gorgeous black with gold flecks. Twilight Rays was $4 and it only has .23 oz so that's pretty pricey for a drugstore brand- roughly the same cost per oz as OPI. I didn't realize it until I got home. I literally was like "Ohhh this is a nice color!" and bought it on the spot!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

This polish is very unique. It is Amy's Nail Boutique- Pink Lemonade. It is a combination of yellow and pink matte glitter in a clear base. It is rather sheer. I am wearing four coats here. I really enjoyed this shade, and for next time I may layer it over a pink or yellow.

Pink Lemonade wore very well too! There is a small chip on my index finger because I went to the pool, but other than that everything was fine. The color combination of the glitters looks great together. The finish of this was actually smooth with one coat of Seche Vite. It didn't feel gritty like many glitters do.

Amy's Nail Boutique is a relatively new indie company. Amy has wonderful customer service! I received my polishes from her probably 2-3 days after ordering. She also has plenty of other nifty shades in her Etsy shop. Currently Pink Lemonade isn't in stock, but she usually posts restock dates on her facebook page. What does everyone thing of the matte glitter trends lately? I'm enjoying it!

I also have a small Walgreen's haul:

I came across the Wet n Wild Fergie exclusives and I threw in a unique looking Sinful Colors- Pull Over because I don't own that many yellows. Sinful Colors are only $1.99 and they have a pretty good formula for the price. The Fergie ones are: Hollywood Walk of Fame, Glowstick, No Place Like Home, and Tonight's Gonna be a Good Night. Each of the Fergie polishes retailed for about $3.50 each.

Monday, July 9, 2012

It's been a while since I did a crackle combination it seems. I still have tons of crackles that I have yet to try! This is China Glaze- Cracked Medallion from last summer's Metallic Crackle collection. It is layered over Wet n Wild- I Need a Refresh-Mint which was recently released in the new Megalast line. This picture is without the flash.

With the flash, you can see how metallic Cracked Medallion is. My Cracked Medallion was never used before this mani and it was somewhat goopy and thick. I debated adding thinner, but it ended up cracking pretty well without it. I like when the cracks are more spaced out and you can see more of the base color beneath. It crackled pretty quickly too.

This is I Need a Refresh-Mint. The picture was taken without the flash. This applied very nicely and was completely opaque in two coats. I really like the brushes on these. They're larger than the OPI Prowide brushes, and they weren't that messy. It made it easy to get a clean, even sweep of color. This is a beautiful blue-toned mint green creme. There is one downside to this shade though, that being that it stains. It doesn't look like a color that would stain, but even with basecoat, I had random streaks of blue on my nails after removing this. Make sure you use basecoat with this shade!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

This is a really old ORLY! It was one of the bottles before the rubberized caps and it's .75 oz which is a lot of polish!!! I believe current ORLY bottles have .6 oz. ORLY-Satin Society is meant to have a satin finish and even has a frosted glass bottle. The first coat dried rather satin-like, but as I added coats, I knew that it would have taken a long time to dry so I added Seche Vite. It now has a nice glossy finish. It still took a little bit of time to dry even with the Seche Vite!

Satin Society is pretty sheer white and needed three thick coats. It had a frosty quality to it, but the brushstrokes weren't as visible.

I also have gotten a ton of nail mail lately! I've gotten some really good prices on these from blog sales or sales in indie shops!